SB 776: Crisis Pregnancy Center Review Act

What Are Crisis Pregnancy Centers?

In small and large cities across the U.S. and Oregon, anti-abortion groups have set up Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). They are often located near high schools or Planned Parenthood clinics. These centers generally provide free pregnancy tests and anti-abortion counseling services. Some sites also provide ultrasounds and STD screening tests. For most CPCs, the goal is to use a variety of tactics to dissuade women from choosing abortion when facing an unplanned pregnancy. 

Currently, there are over 60 CPCs operating throughout Oregon, with the majority in the Portland-Salem area.  44% of the clinics are operated by a larger umbrella organization such as Birthright.  Care Net is the largest parent company, operating 35 clinics in Oregon.

Misleading Advertising Practices

CPCs often mask their anti-choice mission in order to attract “abortion vulnerable clients.”[1]  This can take the form of advertising under “abortion services” in the yellow pages or obscuring the fact that the center does not provide referrals to abortions in the text of an advertisement.[2]  Some centers purchase advertising on internet search engines under keywords that include “abortion” or “abortion clinics.”[3]

False Information about Health Care

According to surveys conducted nationally and in Oregon, the vast majority of CPCs provide medically and factually inaccurate information about pregnancy, abortion and fertility. For example, many of these centers mislead women about the medical risks of abortion, saying that abortion leads to breast cancer, infertility, and mental illness.[4]  Some centers even provide misleading information about birth control and emergency contraception.

Ultrasounds: the New Frontier

One of the most concerning developments is that more and more CPCs are providing non medical ultrasounds to pregnant women. These ultrasounds are often provided by staff that are not medically trained to read ultrasound results or address complicated medical situations where there may be fetal abnormalities.

Review of Oregon CPCs Needed

The Crisis Pregnancy Center Review Act is needed to determine how CPCs are operating in Oregon and what, if any, regulation is necessary to protect patients. SB 776 directs the Department of Human Services (DHS) to collect data on how CPCs disclose their services and religious affiliation, the accuracy of medical information provided, advertising methods used, and the types of services provided. DHS is directed to report these findings to the Legislature by December 2008. The bill also requires DHS to establish a toll-free number, complaint form, and process to track and investigate complaints about CPCs.

Protect the Safety of All Oregon Teens -- Oppose House Bill 3234

Government Mandated Parental Notification for Abortions is Dangerous to Young Women

That is why Oregon voters soundly defeated this concept in our most recent election by a margin of nearly 10 percent.[1] 

Everyone supports strong family communication about important issues and the vast majority of older teens involve one or both of their parents in abortion decisions.[2]  However, teaching about family communication, responsibility and values has to happen before a young woman faces a pregnancy, not by a government-mandated notification requirement.

In the real world, some young women opt not to inform their parents about their abortion decision due to threats of violence or a history of violence in their families. 

Dangerous Delays Jeopardize Young Women’s Health

In states with government mandated parental notification, studies have shown that teens will delay seeking any medical care.  The result is an increase in the number of second-trimester abortions or the number of teens that travel outside stateliness to obtain an abortion.[3]

Parental notification laws put the most vulnerable teens at increased risk.  Forcing a doctor to send a certified letter to a parent who may be responsible for the abuse raises the risk to a young woman.  This bill will do nothing to protect the safety of those teens.

Older teens who want to avoid parental notification may seek illegal or self-induced abortions.  Some engage in seriously self-destructive behavior.  Desperate teens will take – have taken – desperate measures.  There are numerous real world stories

from around the country that highlight what happens when teens take drastic steps to avoid mandated parental notification statutes.

·        In 2004, a boy in Armada, Michigan beat his girlfriend’s belly with a miniature baseball bat over the course of several weeks to induce a miscarriage because the two did not believe they could get her parent’s permission to obtain an abortion.

·        In 1994, in Colorado, a newspaper reported a teen drinking bleach hoping to end her pregnancy and another teen consuming dangerous amounts of alcohol trying to end her pregnancy.

Trusted and Needed Adults Are Driven Away from Helping Vulnerable Teens

When facing an unplanned pregnancy, young women need help from supportive adults, counselors, doctors and nurses.  This bill would only serve to push away these trained professionals by threat of losing their license or facing civil penalties. 

HB 3234 Puts Vulnerable Teens into a Bureaucratic Maze

This bill introduces a new method of judicial bypass that is untested in other states, utilizing administrative law judges from the Department of Human Services.  Teens facing an unintended pregnancy need the help and support of doctors, nurses or other trusted adults in their lives, not to have to stand before a judge to plead their case. 

Government Mandated Parental Notification Will Not Help a Young Woman Talk to Her Parents

Families need information and support to begin conversations about issues relating to sexuality early in a child’s life.  Successful, healthy communication requires teaching and talking about responsibility and values early, not starting the conversation through a government mandate once a teen is facing a pregnancy.